HEALTH & MEDICINE
One in 10 U . S . adults takes antidepressants . Despite their ubiquity , the drugs work slowly and often come with a slew of side effects .
“ These drugs are dampening symptoms ,” says UC Davis neuroscientist and associate professor David Olson . “ They ’ re not really getting at the heart of the disease .” Olson , a recipient of the university ’ s Innovator of the Year award in 2021 , is developing drugs he thinks can get at the heart of depression . The goal : a drug that requires just a single dose to outperform traditional selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors , better known as SSRIs . A drug that can not only treat mental illness but may be able to heal it .
To do that , Olson ’ s lab is harnessing the ability of psychedelic drugs to rewire the brain . After decades of cultural stigma and legal prohibition against the study of psychedelics , the past 20 years have seen a resurgence in research on the ability of psilocybin mushrooms and other hallucinogens to treat a variety of mental illnesses .
Olson ’ s goal is to develop drugs that offer the healing power of a psychedelic experience , without the trip . So far , Olson has created two drugs that research suggests stimulate the brain like psychedelics , but don ’ t produce hallucinogenic effects .
In 2019 , Olson cofounded Delix Therapeutics to help bring his drugs to market with Nick Haft , managing director of OMX Ventures , a venture capital firm specializing in medicine and science technology in New York . In September , the company closed a $ 70 million Series A funding round , which will fund clinical trials for the two drugs by the end of 2022 . Over 500 other novel psychedelic-like drugs are currently “ in the pipeline ” for drug development , Olson says .
Charting new territory
Not too long ago , Olson ’ s research would have been unthinkable . When Olson began his doctoral work at Stanford University in 2006 , his colleagues warned him that researching psychedelics could be a career killer . But as a graduate student interested in brain disorders , Olson became captivated
“ We need to think about a more scalable alternative . Something so safe that you can pick them up at a retail pharmacy and take them as you would ibuprofen .”
DAVID OLSON Cofounder , Delix Therapeutics
by early papers in the 1940s and ’ 50s showing the drugs ’ effects on addiction and other mental health issues . “ I just found the data so exciting , I couldn ’ t help it ,” he says .
Following the discovery of LSD in 1943 ( after a Swiss chemist accidentally ingested it ) and the popularization of psilocybin mushrooms in 1957 ( psilocybin refers to the hallucinogenic chemical found in some mushrooms ), scientists across the world found astonishing evidence for the drugs ’ efficacy in treating ailments .
But as psychedelics became associated with the counterculture movement of the 1960s , institutional support for the research waned . In 1970 , the Controlled Substances Act classified LSD , psilocybin , mescaline and DMT as Schedule I controlled substances — the most restrictive designation for drugs with “ no medical potential and strong likelihood for abuse .”
For David Nichols , a professor emeritus of pharmacology at Purdue University , it was a lonely time to begin a career in psychedelics research . He began his work at Purdue in 1974 , just as funding for psychedelic research ground to a halt . “ Most grant agencies didn ’ t fund any kind of research , unless it was negative ,” he says .
In 2000 , the field began to thaw when Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine professor and neuroscientist Roland Griffiths obtained government approval to give high doses of psilocybin to healthy volunteers . That research resulted in a 2006 study showing a single dose of the drug appeared to have positive effects on attitude and behavior . A follow-up study in 2016 showed it eased depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer .
Now , psychedelics are being studied at institutions across the country , with dozens of clinical trials underway and hundreds of scientific papers published . While early clinical trials focused on depression , addiction and anxiety , more recent trials are exploring the effect of psilocybin on treatment of anorexia , migraine headaches and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder .
Though the field has taken huge strides , Olson says psychedelic treatment has two drawbacks . The first is that not all patients can safely take the drugs . Some research suggests that psychedelics can hasten the onset of
48 comstocksmag . com | December 2021